The government is looking at providing some sort of relief to waste pickers, who have been left without a livelihood since the national lockdown began.
Minister of Environmental Affairs, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy, said waste pickers are experiencing a particularly tough time, and a proposal has been made to use some of the recently set-up National Solidarity Fund to aid them. Waste pickers are not allowed to work as they are not classified as essential workers.
“In the meantime, to alleviate hunger we have approached the Consumer Goods Council and its members who are in the process of discussing an intervention that will see the provision of food parcels with immediate effect to waste pickers,” Creecy said in a briefing.
WATCH VIDEO: Waste pickers hit hard by SA lockdown
